


a constant state of flux

by Anonymous



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: F/M, implied snotlout/tuffnut and gobber/stoick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:47:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27007585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Astrid breaks up with Hiccup, Snotlout breaks up with traditional masculinity, and Ruffnut breaks everything in sight.
Relationships: Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III/Ruffnut Thorston
Comments: 3
Kudos: 17
Collections: Anonymous





	a constant state of flux

The thought had never even crossed his mind, but if it had, Hiccup would have counted Snotlout more likely to renounce his pursuit of all things manly and admit girls weren’t actually the weaker sex. In other words, impossible. In _other_ other words, he and Astrid were as solid as his own inventions.

Now that he thought about it, they might have been doomed from the start.

“You want to _what_?”

Astrid tapped her foot on the ground impatiently. “I _said_ , let’s break up.”

Hiccup could hear his father’s anguished shrieks already. Can’t kill a dragon, can’t even keep a girlfriend. Definite contender for son of the year. He waved his hands in front of his face to clear his mind and slumped against the bench.

“I think I need a moment,” he gasped out, his mind a mess of _what did I do_ and _how did I mess up this time._ In typical Viking fashion, Astrid didn’t listen.

“I’ve been thinking,” she began, planting her hands on her hips. That was always an ominous sign. “I mean, you go off flying on your dragon every day, you show no interest in anything but your own exploratory adventures, and you only ever talk to me to vent about whatever terrible problem you’re having at the moment.”

Well, at least that answered the _why_.

“On top of that,” she continued, “when there’s an emergency, you don’t even think of relying on me. You always have to go and do everything yourself. You expect us all to follow your plans, but you don’t _listen_ to anyone.”

“I take your suggestions!” cried Hiccup indignantly. The rest was probably true, but he could at least object to this one. “What about that last time with the Terrors? Fishlegs made a very good point about their stamina running out faster than other dragons’, and I used that, didn’t I?”

“Fishlegs happened to comment on that while you were muttering to yourself, trying to figure out what to do. You never asked, did you?”

“ _You_ never told me you were so unhappy,” Hiccup retorted.

“So now you’re trying to change the subject,” snapped Astrid. “Can you not, for once in your life, admit you’ve made a few mistakes?”

Her accent was getting stronger, the way it always did when she was upset, and her hands were flying around wildly as she talked. She was beautiful.

Hiccup sighed. “Fine, I get it. I’m sorry. Can’t we work something out?”

Astrid’s scowl softened.

“I’m sorry too,” she said, clasping her hands together. “I wasn’t being completely honest either. The truth is, I don’t want to break up – ”

“Great! So then – ”

“If you’ll let me finish,” she growled, “I don’t want to break up because you’re a self-centred guy with a hero complex and authority issues. I want to break up because until you swept in and saved us all from death by dragon fire, I was next in line to be chief, and I don’t like how you being the resident dragon expert suddenly makes you better than me at protecting the village.”

Well, that was unexpected. And confusing.

“What does that have to do with anything? We can still date if you’re chief. I don’t even want to be chief, no matter what Dad says.”

“I know _you_ think that way,” said Astrid. “It’s one of the things I like about you. But as long as we’re dating, people won’t see me as Astrid Hofferson. All they see is the chief’s son’s girlfriend.”

“So I don’t even get a name now.”

“You know what I mean. Anyway, even if you don’t mean to, you _do_ try to take charge, Hiccup.” She reached out to cup his face and smiled. “At least when it comes to dragons. I don’t want to lose to you.”

“Astrid...”

“This is for everything.” Her lips brushed his cheek, the moment all too brief. He wondered whether this was the last time he would have the privilege of knowing that softness. When she drew back, her eyes were shining, but she was smiling, and Hiccup was surprised to find that he was able to smile back.

He took her hands in his. They were warm, familiar; he didn’t want to let go.

_She really is beautiful_.

“Good luck,” he said, and meant it.

Things finally sank in two days later, when he arrived back in Berk after christening Sore Feet Jnr, a new island about half a day’s ride away. Gone were the celebratory hug and welcome-back kiss; in their place was the bitter chill of the coming frost and the dubious honour of accompanying Gobber to make “a dinner good enough it’ll have your dad dribbling all over his beard”.

“No thanks for the mental image,” Hiccup muttered under his breath. Naturally, everyone heard him.

“If Gobber were cooking _me_ dinner,” Snotlout began, puffing out his chest, “I’d eat everything. Including the bones!”

Fishlegs covered his mouth anxiously. “B-But what if they get stuck in your throat?” he asked. “You could choke!”

“Yeah,” Tuffnut said. “Haven’t you seen the size of the fish Gobber’s going to cook? You’ll choke for sure.”

“Yeah,” Ruffnut chimed in. “Then you’d die.” She snickered, looking at her brother for support, but oddly, Tuffnut appeared more shocked than excited.

“He could _die_?” he asked her, voice hoarse.

Hiccup ignored the sound of Fishlegs falling to the ground in a dead faint. He also ignored Snotlout’s increasingly loud attempts to convince Tuffnut that _Real men don’t choke_ and _In Berk, I choke the fish!_ He turned to Astrid, ready to share a commiserating glance at the idiocy of their peers, only to find her kneeling next to Fishlegs, holding him steady while he regained consciousness.

“Uh, Astrid? What are you doing?”

Astrid looked at him with an expression that indicated that Hiccup was the idiotic one in this group; an accusation which Hiccup found, frankly, rather unwarranted. “Fishlegs just fainted,” she said, drawing out each word. “He has anxiety. I’m checking to make sure he’s okay.”

“Why wouldn’t he be okay?” Hiccup asked, genuinely confused. Fishlegs’ anxiety attacks were an everyday occurrence, and he had yet to sustain any serious injuries from them. “Fishlegs, are you okay?”

“I think I’m fine now,” Fishlegs replied feebly. “Thanks, Astrid.”

So maybe Hiccup wasn’t as considerate a person as he’d originally thought. Maybe he’d been relying on Astrid for company more than he’d thought, too. That was fine. Tame a dragon, lose a leg, break up with a girlfriend – Hiccup was accustomed to dramatic life changes. It might take some time, but he’d adjust.

Ruffnut was looking between the two of them with wide eyes. “Hold on,” she said, with dawning realisation.

“I’m holding on!” Tuffnut yelled back, clinging to Snotlout’s arm. “Wait, why are we holding?”

If Hiccup had to have his break-up publicised by the terrible twins, he might sail back to Sore Feet Jnr on his own and live in exile for the rest of his life.

It said something about Berk that after the initial gasping crowd and few days of whispers whenever he left the house, everybody moved on to the next piece of hot gossip, which in this case happened to be Gothi’s new hobby of predicting dragon race winners.

Amid all the excitement, nobody noticed when Snotlout added a bit of rope to his arms and fluffed up his boots. Everyone had fluffy boots and straps up for support. It wasn’t even weird when he lengthened his tunic a bit and started washing his hair every day. Everyone wore tunics, and as for the hair thing – well, that was pure Snotlout vanity.

Washing _Tuffnut’s_ hair every day was quite a different matter.

“Your hair is so beautiful,” Snotlout enthused, hands tangled in Tuffnut’s scalp. “How do you keep it so long _and_ so smoothly tangle-free?”

“Getting it washed every day helps,” said Tuffnut. “Also, I stole Ruffnut’s special hair lotion. Ow!”

“Thought you said it made me smell like a girl,” sneered Ruffnut.

“What’s wrong with that?” asked Snotlout. “Girls smell nice.”

Astrid smirked. “Are _you_ going to use it then?”

“Why not?” Snotlout retorted. “Hookfang, blow-dry!”

Hookfang sent a blast of fire into the air just above Tuffnut’s head.

“Feels so warm,” said Tuffnut. “My hair goes from wet to dry like boom to, uh, boom!”

Hiccup waved his hands around.

“Hello? This is the Dragon Training Academy, not the Hair Appreciation Society. Snotlout, why do you have to wash Tuffnut’s hair every day? Isn’t once a month or so enough?”

“You’re just jealous of his beautiful hair,” said Snotlout. He grabbed a chunk of Tuffnut’s hair and dragged him around by it. “See how strong it is? Look at how shiny it is in the sun!”

Ruffnut cackled.

“It doesn’t weird you out or anything?” Hiccup asked her once. He had taken to spending more time in his workshop since the breakup, if only to avoid running into Astrid around town. To his surprise, Ruffnut had started visiting regularly as well. She claimed that since Snotlout was monopolising Tuffnut, she had been set free to check out the things she really wanted to check out – meaning, apparently, Hiccup’s new inventions of the week.

Privately, Hiccup wondered whether she was just a bit lonely. It would make _him_ feel better about his own situation, at least.

Ruffnut shrugged. “Tuffnut’s hair has always been at least as long as mine,” she said, as if it were an explanation. She shook her own long braids out as she spoke. “He’s into cooking because you can make cool noises with the pots. He makes his own clothes. He’s good at poetry. He doesn’t really like labels he hasn’t come up with himself.”

“What does this have to do with Snotlout’s sudden interest in hairdressing?”

“Gobber makes all the meals for you and your dad, right?”

“Yeah, and he patches up all our socks for us too. I don’t know how we’d manage without him.”

“You probably don’t remember, but back when you were a loser, Snotlout wouldn’t shut up about how he’d avenge Gobber’s missing limbs and stuff. He really wanted to be the teacher’s pet. As if a coward like him could command anyone’s respect.”

“Ruffnut, what are you on about?”

She stared pityingly at him. “And people say _I’m_ stupid.”

She spoke in such a matter-of-fact way that Hiccup almost let the words brush past him, just as he had allowed similar lines to escape his attention countless times in the past. Current Hiccup was different, though. Post-breakup Hiccup was trying his best to be, well, less of a ‘ _self-centred guy with a hero complex and authority issues_ ’.

“You know you’re brilliant, right?”

Ruffnut’s eyes widened in surprise, her mouth falling open. Hiccup reached out and closed it for her before she could start drooling. “You’re kidding,” she said, brow creasing.

“I’m not.” Hiccup cast his eyes around for something to help him gather his thoughts. “I didn’t appreciate it for what it was before, but you have a really unique way of thinking. You’re a survivor – you’re not just reckless for the sake of it. And you’re kind.”

“None of that had anything to do with my smarts,” said Ruffnut, though she hid her face with her hair, casting her chin in shadow.

“True.” Hiccup smiled. “I’m not doing a great job of communicating, am I? All I wanted to say is…I know what it’s like when you’re doing something because your heart tells you to, or because you want to protect something, and nobody else seems to understand.”

The thought had struck him at some point in between muttering to himself over blueprints and knocking back Ruffnut’s escalating suggestions for features to implement – _why not_? Astrid had been supportive of him, but when it came to the technicalities of his work, she had mostly left him to his own devices. Hiccup could get, well, _protective_ of his ideas, and Astrid was busy with training and helping to organise the village, so they worked better that way.

Ruffnut, on the other hand, never played to his expectations. “It’d be cool if you set it on fire,” she’d said, upon seeing one of his plans to upgrade his crossbow. Hiccup had been halfway through explaining why he wasn’t going to put flammable arrows in his crossbow, which had _wooden parts_ , when Ruffnut had blinked and asked, “If you can’t light them up before you fire them, why can’t you make them burn after they’ve been fired?”

Another time, she had pointed to a small joint in Hiccup’s saddle. “Seems uncomfortable,” she’d said, wrinkling her nose.

“It’s for stability,” Hiccup had explained, but when he’d confronted Toothless later, he had found, to his horror, that the protrusion _had_ apparently been chafing at his friend for some time. “Why didn’t you tell me?” he’d asked, betrayed and more than a little guilty, but Toothless had only shaken its limbs in the dragon equivalent of a shrug and bumped him in the side to ask for head scratches.

The fact of the matter was that maybe Astrid had been onto something with her break-up speech. Maybe Hiccup had been so caught up in his own issues that he hadn’t spent enough time observing the people (and dragons) around him.

He knew all about his peers’ riding habits and how they cared for their dragons, but when it came to their personal lives, Hiccup had to admit that they probably knew each other better than he did.

“Lovely weather for a painfully honest hour of self-reflection,” he remarked as he strode down the path to the dragons’ cave. He was hoping the flying would help to cool his mind, but now that he was approaching the cave, all he could recall were the memories of looping the clouds with Astrid’s arms around his waist.

Toothless greeted him with a joyful head bump. Even this small touch made Hiccup’s eyes sting. He ran his hand over Toothless’ snout in return. “Guess it’s just you and me, bud.”

Toothless purred in assent. His heart a little lighter, Hiccup swung himself onto the saddle and tapped lightly against the dragon’s inky scales. They took off into the sky, soaring above the clouds. The thinning of the atmosphere made his lungs burn – it was exhilarating. _I could never grow tired of this_ , Hiccup thought. He cast his eyes upon Toothless, who was cruising on a gust of wind, mouth wide and relaxed in the way that Hiccup knew meant he was content.

The sky was so vast and open. He thought of all the islands he’d discovered with the rest of his team as they patrolled the air, of the dragon species they hadn’t known existed, of all the things he would never have dreamed of experiencing back when he was alone in the village, strangled by the weight of his father’s expectations.

Maybe all he needed was a new perspective.

He tapped Toothless on the shoulder. “Hey buddy, how do you feel about trying something different today?”

Toothless let out a gurgle of assent and flipped them both upside-down.

_Remember that feeling_ , Hiccup thought a week later, staring at the huge rock boulder covering their one and only exit route. _What would Toothless do? There has to be a way out of here_.

They had been exploring a cave when Tuffnut had dared Snotlout to step on what Hiccup would describe as _a blindingly obvious trap_ , and Snotlout had, against all logic and reason, done exactly that. Hiccup was coming to realise that there wasn’t a lot that Snoutlout _wouldn’t_ do, provided Tuffnut was the one requesting it of him.

Thankfully, they still had some light, since Astrid had had the foresight to pack one of Hiccup’s inventions in her backpack, a sort of reflective stone that glowed in the dark. There was the good news. Pretty much everything else, on the other hand, was very bad news.

“What did you think?” Snotlout was asking the group. He put both his arms in the air, flexing his biceps. “I was cool, right?”

Tuffnut grinned. He pointed to the boulder. “Yeah, super cool. All those rocks slamming down with a _boom!_ Hey, you know what else would be cool? If you punched that rock with your bare fists.”

Fishlegs cowered down. “I-I don’t know if that’s a good idea…”

“Fishlegs is right,” Astrid said. “You’ll just hurt yourself.”

“What’s life without a little pain?” scoffed Tuffnut. “If you make a dent in it, I’ll move your picture in my room to centre place.”

“Who’s in centre place at the moment?” asked Hiccup, mildly alarmed.

Tuffnut waved a hand carelessly. “It’s still you, but Ruffnut keeps begging me for it, so I’ll need to replace it soon.”

Hiccup’s alarmed gaze flickered to Ruffnut. To his surprise, she had the decency to blush. “I told you I liked crazy,” she said, eyes straying down. It was a side of her that Hiccup hadn’t seen much before, and the contrast to her usual attitude was so strong he found himself thinking it was a little bit cute.

Wait, _what_.

“Does anyone have any other ideas?” Hiccup asked, fighting down a blush of his own.

“I’m going to punch the big rock!” Snotlout hollered. The twins cheered.

“Any _reasonable_ ideas?” Hiccup corrected himself, ignoring Snotlout’s angry protests.

Ruffnut stretched her hand up in the air and wiggled her fingers. “We could get _Meatlug_ to bash the big rock.”

Fishlegs cried out in distress, throwing his arms around his dragon, but Meatlug shook him off and waddled over to the boulder, swinging her tail against it experimentally.

Snoutlout looked incredibly insulted. “Are you saying that you think Meatlug could punch something better than me?” He paused, thinking the words through. “On second thoughts, you’re probably right.”

“I don’t think it’ll work,” Hiccup said, frowning. “It’s too big.”

Ruffnut rolled her eyes. “Then bash it until it’s not so big, _duh._ ”

“If it doesn’t break after you punch it once, why would it break after you punch it twice?” Snotloud argued. “That’s just doing the same thing for no reason!”

“No, _dumbass_ , it’s doing the same thing until you end up doing something different.”

“Uh, doesn’t that kind of defeat the point of doing the _same_ thing?” asked Tuffnut. “Like, if I were trying to figure out why it hurts more when I hit my nose instead of my leg, wouldn’t I just keep hitting my nose until I figured it out?”

“Good point!” said Ruffnut. She leered at him. “Why don’t you try it?”

Hiccup looked at them in despair. “Can we at least _try_ to contribute something useful to the discussion?”

Ruffnut’s eyes flashed, suddenly brighter in the darkness. “Oh, I’ll try,” she said. “Not sure it’ll make much difference. What does ‘useful’ even mean anyway? Can you eat it?”

As always, her voice was light, even. Yet Hiccup had been around her enough by now to catch the way it wavered at the last, her words a little scratchier and more vulnerable. He wondered how many times this had happened before. He wondered how many times he hadn’t noticed.

“Ruffnut, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. I really do appreciate what you and Tuffnut bring to the group. Do you think…Could you repeat what you suggested again?” It was a poor peace offering, but Ruffnut wasn’t the type to hold grudges.

“I just said you could keep doing the same thing, but with a different goal...” She shook her head. “Never mind, it was a stupid idea.”

Hiccup frowned, trying to see past the simple terms she used. His eyes widened, and he looked up at her with a smile. “No, what? No, Ruffnut, that’s actually – that’s actually a brilliant idea!”

There was one way to get the twins on board with his plans, and that was to tell them they were going to do something crazy.

“I knew there was a reason I liked you,” Ruffnut said, clapping him on the shoulder as she rushed past. “They say there’s a fine line between genius and insanity!”

“Who is _they?_ ” asked Tuffnut, scrunching his face up. “Are we sure we can trust them?”

“Listen up,” Hiccup ordered. “We don’t want to damage the structural integrity of the cave, so we have to be careful, but everything has a point of failure. If we hit the boulder in the right spots, we should be able to weaken it enough to start digging out pieces.”

Astrid nodded, already charging at the rock. “Good plan, Hiccup!” she hollered. The twins followed close behind, thrusting their swords at the places Hiccup had marked. Small fragments of stone broke away and scattered across the ground.

Hiccup looked at Ruffnut, whose face was alight with a certain vicious joy, and laughed. “It’s a team effort,” he said. “We’re all in this together.”

Metal burst through stone. A faint ray of sun peeked through a fresh crack in the boulder. It splashed across Ruffnut for an instant, casting her in a brightening spotlight, and Hiccup’s breath caught in his throat at the sight.

_Oh_ , he thought, feeling a little dizzy. _Guess I’d missed this, too_.

Back in the safety of his workshop, Hiccup summoned as much of the courage he was supposed to have as possible. “Hey,” he started, then whacked himself on the forehead with his diary. “No, you sound like a sleaze.” He tried again. “So, I was just wondering…”

Ruffnut vaulted in through the window. “What were you wondering?”

Hiccup did _not_ screech, but he did let out a sound that made the dragon at the next house over reply to him with an ear-piercing cry. “Uh, I – Ruffnut! Do you still want to put my picture in your room?”

It was Ruffnut’s turn to let out an inhuman shriek. Her face flooded with colour. “You’re a hero,” she said quickly, her hands twisted together. “It’s not fair that Tuffnut gets to have a cool picture in his room and I don’t!”

Hiccup considered his options. His inventions were more stable now, thanks to Ruffnut’s suggestions. He’d been observing people more, too. There were things he knew to notice, now – things like the way Ruffnut’s lashes trembled as she looked away, like how cute the freckles dusted across her cheeks were.

He took a breath. “I have something to tell you, Ruffnut. It’s going to sound crazy, but promise you’ll hear me out.”

Ruffnut grinned, confidence coming slowly back to her smile. “You know I like crazy.”

_Yeah_ , Hiccup thought. He knew. They’d be fine – solid as his best inventions.

**Author's Note:**

> I initially started writing this years and years ago...It's not my usual style of writing, and I've half-forgotten all their voices by now, but I do adore Ruffnut and what they did with her character in the TV series (ignores the sequel movies). I always hoped to bring this fic to some semblance of completion. At the very least, I can finally remove it from my list of WIPs!


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